I woke up this morning feeling exhausted and limp after a bad night's sleep (having a baby kick inside your stomach at night makes it really difficult to sleep solidly - who'd've thought it?), and had to drag myself to the computer for the morning's writing session, thinking all I want to do is sleep... the whole way. It didn't help that I'm solidly in the middle of the climax for Kat by Starlight. The great irony of climax sections, at least for me, is that if they're done right, they read faster than any other section of the book - but writing them feels like pulling teeth, and I write those sections at the speed of sludge! Traditionally, I spend many, many weeks at this point flailing around and thinking, "Oh, I can't write it until I figure out exactly what's going to happen..." This time, with the write-a-thon to spur me on, I've had to skip straight ahead to my next traditional step (after I inevitably give up on figuring it all out ahead of time, something that never, ever works for me): writing the climax very, very slowly, with tooth-grinding difficulty, as I figure out, one step at a time, what exactly is going to happen next. It always works out in the end, but it isn't always fun at the time. Luckily, this time I really like what's happened in the climax so far...but it's the hardest kind of writing I know.

But! I had a wonderful reward for it. Just as I was finishing up this morning's session, the doorbell rang. My birthday package from my brother Ben had arrived - and it was Volumes 1 and 2 of Buffy Season 8! WOOT! He knows me very well. :) I've already devoured Volume 1, accompanied by a cup of milky Earl Grey tea and a big slice of hot-from-the-oven apple strudel (mmmmm), and I'm planning to settle into Volume 2 this afternoon. I don't even feel guilty about it, since I was already productive this morning. Bliss...

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